Effects of child age and type of detail reported on credibility of child abuse allegations

With repeated experiences, children’s reports of an event tend to contain fewer episodic, contextually embedded details and more inconsistencies. In one prior study, children who experienced a play event four times were rated by mock jurors as less accurate and less believable than children who experienced it once, although there was no difference in their actual accuracy (Connolly, Price, Lavoie, & Gordon, 2008). In the present study, 405 undergraduate students read one of four scenarios of a child sexual abuse allegation in a 2 (age: 4- or 10-years-old) by 2 (experience: single or multiple) factorial design. Overall, regardless of age, participants rated the child alleging repeated abuse as significantly less believable, honest, cognitively competent, and consistent than the child alleging a single abuse occurrence. Jurors may need education about the effects of repeated experience on children’s accounts of abuse in order to reach appropriate decisions.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Kulisek, Natalie R.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Warren, Amye
• Ross, David F.; Clark, Amanda J.
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Child witnesses
• Recollection (Psychology)
• Sexually abused children
• Interviewing in child abuse
• Child abuse -- Investigations

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/122

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1131